Consumer Prices Rose 2.9% in First Quarter, Below Forecasts

By

James Ramage

April 23, 2014 5:24 p.m. ET

The Australian dollar tumbled after muted inflation data scotched investors' expectations that the central bank would raise interest rates.

Investors had been buying the Australian dollar since late January. The wager was that Australia's economy could weather a slowdown in China, its biggest export market, and that the Reserve Bank of Australia would become the second major central bank, after New Zealand, to increase rates since...